CPU COLLAGE

Business and Information Collage

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)
Project work for the course of entrepreneurship and
innovations
1. Search and identify the successful entrepreneur profile in
Ethiopia

Prepared by
Group members ID No:
1. Habtam Yirga EMBA/056/14
2. Hulusew Teshome EMBA/115/14
3. Genet Solomon EMBA/389/14
4. Bizuhan Abera EMBA/416/14

Submitted To: Dr.Yirgalem T

 Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu was born in zenebework area of Addis
Ababa. Her parents worked at a local hospital. Bethlehem Tilahun
attended public primary and secondary schools and then went on to
study accounting at unity university private university in Addis, She
decided early on that she was going to change things and in 2004 after
graduating, she convinced her grandmother to let her open a work shop
on her land, in early 2005, Bethlehem founded sole rebels to provide
ecologically and economically sustainable jobs for her community.
Seeing that many skilled artisans in her small community in zenebework
were living with chronic unemployment, she wanted to showcase their
skill and offer work to those in her community. Bethlehem was inspired
by seleate or berbasso, the traditional recycled tire sole shoe crafted in
Ethiopia, and footwear became the locus around which she chose to
build the company.
Owner of sole rebels makes beautiful shoes and she makes them in
Ethiopia with zero carbon omissions and local materials. From a small
space she began creating footwear based on traditional Ethiopian
footwear. She managed to bridge the African/west divide by combining
local products including recycled tire soles (her trademark) and locally
sourced fibers with more western style designs. from this humblest of
beginnings, Bethlehem has built sole rebels into the world’s fastest
growing African footwear brand and the very first global footwear brand
to emerge from a developing nation.solerebels is the first African
consumer brand to ever open standalone branded retail stores around the
globe with growing to 300 employees in Ethiopia, distribution to thirty
countries worldwide, selling to market kingmakers whole foods, urban
outfitters and Amazon. Stores now open in Germany, Greece, Singapore,
Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and the USA (silicon
valley).”roots.culture.tyres”is the motto printed on the walls of every
sole rebel’s store. In 2016 the company sold 125,000 pairs of shoes and
it had created 1,200 jobs. In 2014 Bethlehem announced a new business
venture, the republic of leather, via a blog post on the sole rebels
website. she identified the luxury leather goods industry as being” ripe
for a total re-imagining,” along similar lines to what she had
accomplished with sole rebels and the footwear industry. Besides
espousing the same ideals of ecological and economic sustainability as
solerebels, the republic of leather is centered on principles of customer
choice of design, producer and receiving charity of 5% of the price they
pay. Named by Forbes magazine as one of Africa’s most influential
women.
In 2017, a new venture” garden of coffee” was added to her companies.
A coffee store chains those outlets in Addis Ababa. She plans to open
100 outlets in china by 2022. In her own words, “we are changing as a
country. There is a lot of hope and lot of dialogues and discussions
around what’s happening in Ethiopia.”
A. Critical evaluate how he/she become successful entrepreneur?
Growing up she saw that Ethiopia had plenty of charity “brands “
but not a single global brand of its own. So she set out to change
all that. Tapping into her community’s and the nation’s rich artisan
wealth and heritages, she set about reimagining what footwear
could be.
Bethlehem has been able to create global brands like sole rebels
and garden of coffee. These brands have leveraged Ethiopian
cultures and exposed the world to them, while being both vibrant
and relevant in their products and offerings. She is constantly
attempting to thread; building exciting brands around our unique
cultures, brands that become ubiquitous and impactful.
B. Identify his/her socio-economic origins of entrepreneurship
Bethlehem was born and raised in Addis Ababa in one of the most
impoverished and marginalized communities of Ethiopia. She
started her business by convinced her grandmother to let her open
a work shop on her land.
C. Narrate lesson you learned from the successful entrepreneur.
As a student of this course all the group members learned from the
successful entrepreneur that business is all about solving problems.
Trying to identify the singular most difficult situation would be
doing a disservice to this simple fact: if you are not continuously
encountering tough situations as an entrepreneur, and solving
them, then you are not really in business. Encountering obstacles
and overcoming them is my day-to –day existence (Bethlehem
Tilahun)